Seeing Double
by messenger394
Summary: This time Autumn Stark and her friends are up against their biggest threat so far. It's going to take even more than the Avengers to save the world and everyone in it. Oh, and that's not to mention the fact that a horrible crime leaves a child in her care. Autumn/Loki 3rd installment in the Autumn Stark series
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own the Avengers.**

It's a Friday, that also just happens to be my Dad's birthday. We decided to keep the party small this year. The whole gang is over minus Steve, who's currently on a job in Colorado. Don't ask what it is because I have no clue. They keep me on a need-to-know basis. It's really annoying.

The Fantastic 4 are here too. Dad and Reed became friends a few months ago over a job that needed brains over firepower. Ever since they met the four of them are constantly in and out of our building. I don't mind Reed, Sue, and Ben but Johnny needs to learn when he's wanted and when he's not. Speaking of Johnny here he comes now.

Johnny Storm sits on the free side of the couch which happens to be next to me. Loki's on my other side with his arm around my shoulders. We've just been sitting here on the couch watching TV most of the night. We just got back from a job so we're not in a partying mood.

"So Autumn," Johnny turns to me "we should do something, like just us." He asks me the same thing at least once a week. My answer never changes.

I sigh an roll my eyes before answering "Johnny you and I both know that's never going to happen." He's really lucky I haven't lost my temper with him yet.

He doesn't look happy "Oh I forgot, you're dating that." He looks to Loki. Loki glares back over my head. I take that back, he's really lucky Loki hasn't killed him yet. "C'mon just give me one good reason why you won't date me besides him!" He says this pretty loudly so all eyes are on us.

I snort "Just one?" He nods. "I would never date you because you're an annoying playboy, with too much money for his own good. Now will you leave me alone?" He nods before sulking off into a corner, having a conversation with Clint. It isn't long before the party has died down and they're all gathering around the tv with us wanting to watch a movie.

Whoever has the remote is obviously drunk because they can't hit the right button to save their life. Finally they stop on the news when someone grabs the remote out of Clint's hand but I stop them before they turn it. On the screen is a very familiar house to me. The house is surrounded by cop cars and ambulances. And underneath it says parents of eight year old murdered.

Tyler's. Parents. Are. Dead. Loki and I share a look before jumping off the couch and heading for the door. Sue and her friends looks confused before she asks "What's wrong?"

"A friend needs me." Is the only thing I say before running out the door with Loki right behind me. We jump into my new car and speed off into the night. The whole drive there neither of us say anything. My brain just isn't comprehending this fact. The Barile's can't be dead. They just can't. How can so much tragedy hit one family? Poor Tyler.

Eventually we reach their house. There's two ambulances, about five cop cars, and a firetruck. I park along the street as close as I can get before we both get out and run toward the house. Cops are everywhere. I look around for Tyler but I can't find him in the crowd. Then Loki points him out. He's watching everything standing next to an old woman, a neighbor I vaguely recognize.

"Tyler!" I yell through the commotion. He turns to look at me with tears streaking down his face before running over and wrapping his arms around me. Since I first met Tyler he's grown up a lot. He's now almost four feet tall, so I don't have to bend over to hug him anymore. I just wonder if he really understands what's happening. Most kids understand the finality of death but they don't think it'll happen to them or the people around them.

I look at the house in front of me. There's crime tape everywhere and cops swarming like bees. Who knows how many times I walked through that door to see Mrs. Barile smiling, how many times I came over for dinner. I don't think it's really hit me yet.

The old woman Tyler walks over to us with a frown on her face. "Hello, who are you?" She asks.

"I'm Autumn Stark, Ty's baby sitter." Recognition can be seen on her face, she just nods before turning back to the house. I look down at Tyler "Hey why don't you go see Loki?" Hen nods before walking to Loki who's standing just out of earshot. Loki rubs his back soothingly and something to him. "Can you tell me what exactly happened?" I ask.

"Well Tyler was down the street at a friends house when someone got in the house and shot them both." She explains, never taking her eyes off the house.

I nod sadly before walking over to an officer "Can I please talk to..." The guy cuts me off "Not now lady." Before shoving past me and under the yellow tape. Well that's one way to piss me off.

I grab the tape and start to duck under it when the old lady grabs my arm "Don't do that you can get in trouble." She gives me a stern look.

I snort. "I'm a Stark, what're they gonna do? Throw me in jail? Sue me?" I wrench my arm free and head toward a guy that looks like he could be in charge. I tap him on the shoulder "Excuse me."

He whips around to face me and I recognize him as the chief of police "Who the hell are you and how did you get in here?" He asks angrily once he recognized that I'm not one of his officers.

"I walked." He looks angry before grabbing my bare arm and dragging me to the edge of the yellow tape. When he doesn't let go I release enough energy to shock him, and possibly make his hair stand on end.

He jumps back and releases my arm "What the... Oh I know who you are." He rolls his eyes "Miss Stark I don't care how rich and famous you are, you can't be in here." He says giving me this look like he thinks I'm stupid.

"No shit sherlock. I just wanted to ask a few questions but your officers here aren't much help." He lifts up the yellow tape and we both walk under it. "That kid means more to me than just about anything so I just wanted to know if he's got anywhere to go for the night?"

He nods "He was going to stay with that woman, as we don't know any relatives that live nearby. I do question her capability to take care of him though." He says.

"I'll take him, he has clothes and some of his things at my house." He nods in agreement. "We'll need to contact you tomorrow." I hand him a card with my number on it before walking over to Loki and Tyler.

I put a hand on Tyler's shoulder "You're going home with us, is that okay?" He sniffs before nodding and wiping away a tear.

The three of us jump in my car before speeding off into the night.

**AN: Well the new story is up! I hope you like it! This story is going to feature a lot more Marvel heroes than the last two! We're also going to dig even farther into Autumn's past and also see her in her domestic life some. :-)**

**Please review guys! **

**R&R**

**-Messenger394**


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own the Avengers.**

We finally arrive home to find it in a mess. Luckily though, everyone either went home or went to bed. I automatically send Tyler to bed due to the fact that he barely kept his eyes open on the way here.

I sigh as I look around the living room. There are beer bottles everywhere, about five bottles of wine on the counter, and trash is all over the place. You'd think we'd had a huge party but nope, my friends are just slobs. I start picking up the beer bottles and throw them in the trash when two hands land on the counter around me.

"We need to go to the store tomorrow." I say.

"Why?" Loki asks resting his chin on my shoulder.

"Because," I say. "We need food and drinks that Tyler can actually have, unless you want him to pick up a drinking habit while he's here." I wave a wine bottle in his face.

"Let's worry about that tomorrow, right now you need sleep." Loki tells me before taking the wine from my hands.

I turn around to face him and cross my arms "Oh, and you don't?" Loki's back to the place where he doesn't sleep. He might come to bed but he spends the whole time tossing and turning before just getting up around three in the morning.

He doesn't answer my question. "I'll clean up in here, just go get some sleep."

"You can't clean up this whole..." I get cut off when two strong arms wrap around me and I'm being thrown over Loki's shoulder. He carries me into our bedroom and I know better than to put up a fight. You'd be surprised how often this happens.

After moving the blankets he sets me down "You've had a long day, now get some rest." he says before kissing me on the forehead and turning the lights off.

'Wow I love him.' I think as I watch him go. Instead of taking Loki's advice and sleeping I think of everything that's happened over the last year. I'm not sure if I mentioned that before but it's been a year since Loki and I started dating. It's amazing how time flies when you're having fun. Honestly, it's been the best year of my life.

I've had an amazing boyfriend who yes, may have a few issues but who doesn't? There's been my friends, family, and Tyler. They've all been amazing. Now it sort of feels like it's all about to come crashing down. I just don't get how so much tragedy could come to one family. First they lost their oldest son, now they themselves are dead, leaving behind an amazing little boy.

Those thoughts lingered in my mind until I finally drifted into a dreamless sleep.

xxxxxx

When I wake up the next morning the bed beside me is empty and hasn't been slept in. "Dammit Loki." I mutter before rolling over to look at the clock which reads 8:00 am. I groan before throwing the covers off and dragging myself out of bed. I really hate mornings but I have shit to get done and not enough time to do it.

I pull off my clothes from yesterday and put on a pair of black skinny jeans and a plain, dark green t-shirt before walking out of my room and into the living room. It looks completely different from last night. In other words, it's spotless. I can see Ty and Loki are already dressed and ready for the day. They're eating breakfast at the kitchen table, Loki reading the newspaper and Tyler is just eating a bowl of cereal with slumped shoulder.

I walk over and rub Ty's back "Morning kid, how ya feeling?" I ask but all I get in return is a sad shrug. Poor kid.

I move over to Loki "What's for breakfast?" Ever since Loki's come to live with us we discovered that he's like a master chef so he pretty much cooks everything.

"Wavvels." Loki utters around a mouthful of syrup and doughy goodness. I look over at Tyler. He turned down waffles for cereal? Especially Loki's waffles? Now I'm really worried. I guess this is normal.

I sigh before heading over to kitchen counter and loading my plate with about five waffles and then drowning them in syrup before sitting at the table across from Ty. "You sure you don't want some?" I ask hopefully. He just shakes he head sadly. Well fuck.

I share a nervous look with Loki out of the corner of my eye before cutting into my first waffle and stabbing it with my fork. It's almost in my mouth when my cell phone rings. I groan setting down my fork. "Hello." I say in an annoyed tone.

"Well I see someone's not a morning person." Is the detectives reply.

I shove the piece of waffle in my mouth before saying "Nope."

"Real classy." I roll my eyes. "I need you to come in today, there are a few things we need to discuss."

I sigh "Can I eat my dang breakfast first?" I ask angrily.

"Just get here as soon as you can. Oh and make sure you bring that boyfriend of yours." He says before the line goes dead. I groan.

"What's wrong now?" Loki asks genuinely concerned.

"They want us at the police station as soon as possible." Now that means I have to go wake up my dad and that Tyler's going to have to deal with a hungover Tony Stark for the next few hours which is never pretty. "Hey can I borrow your glass of water?" Loki nods so I grab it before heading into Dad's bedroom.

My dad is sprawled out over the whole bed, wrapped up in sheets, and snoring worse than a bear. Pepper is nowhere to be found so she must be in the shower. I walk over to Dad "Hey wake up!" I say shaking his shoulder.

"No." He whines before rolling away from me I walk over to the other side of the bed. "C'mon Dad, get up." I nudge his shoulder again. This time he just ignores me. "I didn't want to do this but you leave me no choice." With a grin I dump all of the ice-cold water on his face. He shoots up like a missile before cursing worse than a sailor on a bad day.

I just stand there laughing at him until he looks at me with one of his infamous grins "You want a hug?" He stands up but he does it too fast before leaning over to clutch his head. "Watch Ty for me. There's waffles on the table. Love you. Bye." I say before running out his bedroom and dragging Loki out the door by his arm.

xxxxxx

"What the hell do you mean their will left him in my custody permanently?" I yell at the Chief of Police whose name is Andy.

"Three days before Mr. and Mrs. Barile's death they changed their will. They wanted you to take Tyler if they died." I put my head in my hands. I'm 21 years old, I'm not supposed to be taking care of an 8 year old! I can barely take care of Loki and myself, how do you expect me to care for a child?

"But isn't he supposed to go live with his next of kin?" I ask. It's not that I don't want Tyler it's that I'm not prepared to take care of a kid. Yes I have the money, but I don't know what I'm doing. What if I screw it up?"

"We already talked to them, they're not financially capable of taking care of another child. Autumn, if you don't take him I have no other choice than to put him in the system." He looks at me hopefully.

I can't let them do that. I won't let Tyler go into the system. After a short conversation with Loki I make up my mind. "I'll do it. I'll take care of him."

"Okay I just need you to sign some papers." He says before pulling out a huge stack of legal documents. I spend the next two hours signing and initialing papers.

Before Loki and I get up to leave I ask "Is there anything you can tell us about their murders?"

He looks weary but says "They let the people who killed them in. There was no sign of forced entry anywhere on the property."

That raises plenty of questions in my mind. Did they open that door knowing they were going to die? Why change their will just three days before their death Was that just a coincident or did they know something? Why me? Why would they leave their child in my hands?

Loki and I make it back to the car. "Want me to drive?" He asks. I just nod before handing him the keys. Loki got his learners permit about two months ago. He caught on pretty fast.

Once we're in the car Loki turns to me "We can do this, together."

**AN: Sorry this took so long to get up, I'm blaming it on a bad case of writers block. I go back to school in a week (blech kill me now) so I'm going to try and get the next chapter up before then. **

**I hope you liked it and thank you to the people who followed, favorited, and reviewed! :-)**

**R&R**

**-Messenger394**


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own the Avengers.**

It's been over a week since the shooting, and Tyler's finally ready to go back to school. That's the reason I'm up at six in the morning and not sleeping like my boyfriend. Oh well, I'm just glad that Tyler is finally ready to get back out in the world. He hasn't left Start Tower once besides going to his parents funeral which was Thursday... and it's now Monday. I'm pretty sure that's not healthy for an eight year old boy.

The funeral was pretty small, only a few of their close friends, the family that wouldn't take Tyler (not financially capable of taking another child my ass), and all of the Avengers came. It was short and sad, poor Tyler just hasn't been his usual self. He sleeps most of the time or watches tv, it's just not like him to be so inactive but then again I can't blame him.

He finally came to me Saturday and said that he wanted to go back to school. I think he just wants something to take his mind off of it. I'm still not sure how much of the concept of death that he understands, I think he mostly just knows that he's never going to see his mom and dad again. He was always really close to his parents so I can't say I'm that surprised by his actions but I just want him to be happy again. I know what it's like to feel like you're never going to know happiness again and I would never wish that on anyone.

So after talking with Loki about it we decided that Ty would start back to school today. Right now I'm just waiting on him to finish brushing his teeth so I can drive him to school. "Hurry up Ty, or we're going to be late!" I call into the other room. A few seconds later Tyler comes running out of room, jacket in hand. I hand him his backpack, which has Iron Man on it. My dad is still his idol, I just hope when he's older he doesn't act like my dad.

"C'mon." I sigh before closing the door behind us. I'm still not sure whether this is a good idea or not but we're doing it anyway.

We make our way downstairs and to my car and head to the school. Tyler's school is about 20 minutes away but with my driving it's usually less. Once we get there I pull up along the sidewalk and Ty opens the door and gets out. As soon as the door is shut I roll down the window. "You don't have to go through with this if you don't want to."

"I'll be fine, Autumn." he says before I hear in the distance "Hey, Ty!" Tyler turns around and waves before turning back to me.

"Go." I wave him off and with a quick 'Bye.' He's gone and talking to some kids by the school entrance. I pull away from the school and head home. This is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Sheesh I didn't know this parenting stuff was going to be so hard.

I finally pull into the parking lot and head upstairs. As the door opens I turn on the light. There is a man sitting on my sofa. I scream in surprise and pull my pocketknife out of my back pocket.

Then the man turns around and I recognize the eye patch. Nick fucking Fury. "Really? You couldn't wait in the lobby like a normal person instead of sneaking into my house and sitting in the dark?" I ask incredulously.

Fury opens his mouth to reply but before he says anything the bedroom door opens to reveal a frantic, dripping wet, and only wearing a towel Loki. "What's going on? Why did you scream?" he asks before scanning the room and his eyes landing on Fury.

I can still feel my heart beating out of my chest when I reply "First off, you should dress like that more often" He just glares at me. "And secondly, this stupid idiot surprised me when I got home." Loki just rolls his eyes before heading back into the bedroom to get dressed. I turn to Fury "Alright what the hell do you want? Unless you have something important to say then get out of my house."

"Actually I do know some information that you might be interested in, but if you'd rather I go..." He starts to get up but I stop him. "Alright spit it out." I glare as he sits back down on our couch. "As you know there were some scientists that were put in jail and killed on death row." Now that gained my attention, what could Fury possibly know about all that? That was years ago, they're all dead and they can't hurt me so why bring it back up?

"If you're planning some sick joke then you can just shut up right now." I tell Fury but he doesn't waver.

He looks at me solemnly "Autumn, they're not dead." I can feel my breath hitch in my throat. This can't be happening.

I look Fury in the eye "How? How are they not dead?" The look on his face tells me that I don't want to know the answer but I need to.

"A few years ago SHIELD started a new project that required highly skilled scientists. They took them out of jail and put them in on project but they escaped about a month ago. All of them. This was before I was head of SHIELD so I had nothing to do with it. Now that they're out in the world they might come after you. I just thought you should know." He gets up from the couch, seemingly knowing that he's no longer welcome. Before he walks away he says "Oh and Rogers is returning from his mission tomorrow, you can pick him up from the airport."

Fury heads for the door but before he leaves "What about my mother?"

Fury turns his head but won't look me in the eye "She escaped years ago."

I share a look with Loki who has been standing in the doorway to the bedroom, he looks worried. Whether it's over my reaction or what these scientists could do to our family I don't know. What I do know, is that he has a right to be worried because any evil that we may have come across before is nothing compared to these people.

This time my world really has come crashing down around me.

**AN: Well I hope you all liked it and thanks to those who have reviewed, favorited, or followed this story. I love you all.**

**R&R**

**-Messenger394**


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